Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a wafer-processing apparatus, particularly to a wafer-handling chamber to which both a single-chamber module and a dual-chamber module can be attached.
Description of the Related Art
In order to increase a throughput of a wafer-processing apparatus, the wafer-processing apparatus is equipped with dual process modules as disclosed in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/154,271 (published as U.S. patent application publication No. 2012/0305196). In the wafer-processing apparatus, a process module including dual reaction chambers disposed side by side is attached to each side of the wafer-handling main chamber which is polygonal. However, if the process modules are not commonly standardized, they are not connectable to the same polygonal wafer-handling main chamber. For some processes, a process module needs a certain length or width which are not adjusted, and thus, such a process module is not standardized as other modules can be.
Further, in such a wafer-handling main chamber equipped with dual-chamber process modules, in order to tentatively increase the capacity of the reaction chamber and/or modify the configurations as an experiment to see improvement of performance, it is required to produce a new dual-chamber process module having two new reaction chambers, raising the cost. Also, in order to tentatively increase the size of the reaction chamber or modify the process which requires size modifications, a dual-chamber process module needs to be modified to be a single-chamber process module, and then, a new wafer-handling main chamber is required, or significant modifications are required to accept the single-chamber process module.
Any discussion of problems and solutions involved in the related art has been included in this disclosure solely for the purposes of providing a context for the present invention, and should not be taken as an admission that any or all of the discussion were known at the time the invention was made.